Ukrainian Catholic University and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich have established the Mykola Hayevoy Modern History Center at UCU. The center is named in memory of a young historian and graduate of UCU’s Humanities Faculty who perished in the fighting in the Kursk area on August 27, 2024. The hero was 28 years old. The Modern History Center will research the history of Ukraine and Europe in the 20th century.
UCU and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
The founders’ goal was to create a quality environment for the scholarly work of young researchers, where they would be able to develop under the direction of colleague-mentors. The center will be headed by Doctor of History and UCU Professor Yaroslav Hrytsak, a historian. Among his scholarly co-workers will be Professor Oleksandr Zaytsev of the History Department of the UCU Humanities Faculty and scholars from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.
In order to establish the center, UCU and Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich received research grants from Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). A scholarly conference on the occasion of the center’s opening is planned for October 17 in Lviv. The keynote speaker will be a Canadian historian, Professor of Oxford University Margaret MacMillan, who will give the lecture “Using History to Understand the Present.”
“UCU has established contacts with a group of German researchers who are involved with the history of Ukraine in the 20th century, in particular, research on the Nazi and Soviet regimes in Ukraine. So, together we decided to start a project which will involve war and violence in Ukraine. This theme, unfortunately, is now being repeated in a very tragic and terrible way, in the times of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The problem did not arise today. It has historical roots. So there is a deep sense that, studying the history of 20th century Ukraine and Europe, you can better understand today’s war through the prism of previous wars and determine possible scenarios for getting out of this situation.” So explained the head of the Mykola Hayevoy Modern History Center, Prof. Yaroslav Hrytsak.
The head of the Mykola Hayevoy Modern History Center, Prof. Yaroslav Hrytsak
The center will work on three main themes. The first is researching Stalin’s regime in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, a comparison of two totalitarian governments. The second thematic area involves German-Ukrainian relations during the Second World War. This question is closely connected with the third area of research, “Propaganda and knowledge: The image of Ukrainian nationalism and memory of Soviet and German mass crimes in the period of the Cold War and later.” Researchers at the center will study the history of memory, in particular the history of propaganda about “Ukrainian nationalism” and its connection with knowledge and memory of Soviet and German mass crimes.
“The center’s activity is an integral part of the implementation of UCU’s strategy for the establishment and development of research groups. The creators want to place a special accent on involving young researchers who have recently finished their aspirants’ [doctoral] degree or defended or in the very near future plan to defend their dissertations. This is for them a unique opportunity to work with noted researchers and present their work to a wide academic community,” stated Marianna Pyrih, head of the UCU Research Department.
Marianna Pyrih, head of the UCU Research Department
The center plans in the near future to organize a series of public lectures dedicated to historical questions and themes connected with Russia’s war against Ukraine. Half of these will be delivered by participants of the project from Ukraine and Germany and half by invited specialists. The lectures will be accessible to the wider public. Also planned are summer schools for students and graduates, who will be able to present their projects and research.
The Modern History Center is named after Mykola Hayevoy, a graduate of UCU’s Humanities Faculty who perished on August 27, 2024, during the operation in Kursk. The young historian was to work in the institution after victory, but this did not happen. His scholarly director, Professor Oleksandr Zaytsev of the History Department of the UCU Humanities Faculty, recalled that Hayevoy was very talented. He chose for his dissertation the political biography of Yaroslav Stetsk.
“Judging from the first excerpts that I read as his scholarly director, it would have been a very good work and, in perspective, an interesting and truly scholarly book in which the author neither glorified nor condemned his hero but attempted to understand him and, through his biography, the history of the nationalist movement,” stated Oleksandr Zaytsev.
The professor regretted that Hayevoy went to war: “I considered that Mykola’s place was not at the front but in research. But he decided otherwise, believing that, before defending a dissertation, it was necessary to defend Ukraine. A position like this demands respect. I told him I hoped he would finish his service without damage to his health, but not to forget about Stetsk. ‘Absolutely,’ replied Mykola. Until recently, I hoped he would return soon. Professor Yaroslav Hrytsak and I even reserved a place for him in a collective scholarly project. It wasn’t meant to be.”
After receiving news about Hayevoy’s unfortunate end, the Ukrainian leaders of the project made a proposal to name the Modern History Center in honor of Mykola Hayevoy. The German colleagues supported this, and so Hayevoy will remain with the project team, immortalized in its name.
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